Page 10 of Sinful Beauty

“I was thinking the Dextra project? The contract was signed yesterday, no?”

“That’s an important client. They’re counting on us to help them achieve first-to-market advantage.”

“Precisely. It will be the perfect project for Tristan. We’re on day one of the project. The team kick off isn’t until this afternoon. You can bring Tristan in as a co-lead. By the end of the project, he would have walked through the entire process from beginning to end.”

“Dextra is on a three to five-year timeline.”

“You’ll make it in two to three. Those are the stretch goals and you always hit your stretch goals.”

The two glare at one another and it’s evident there are things unsaid between the two. Interesting.

“I don’t need to lead.” I don’t want to lead but I can’t say that in front of Mum. “But I love the sound of this project.”

“Do you?” Nelson asks, nostrils flaring.

“Yes. And don’t worry about my pulling a Myriam.” I cast a fond smile in my mother’s direction. “You can have me sign non competes or whatever so I won’t take my knowledge and build a competitor.”

“Heavens,” Mom sighs. “Why would you go and put that nonsense in his head?” Her eyebrows lift ever so slightly, but her forehead remains impressively smooth. “Nelson, that is not what we’re about.”

Nelson pushes off his desk, head bowed, most likely deep in thought until he arrives at his high-backed leather desk chair. His throne.

“Myriam, you know I’ll do anything for you.” His expression doesn’t quite match his words, but my mother appears oblivious. “We’ll find a spot. Let me confer with Jean-Claude. He’s the project lead. In the meantime, I had my assistant clear an office space for you. It’s an office along this hallway. We’d been using it for storage.”

“Lovely,” Mom says as she stands and smooths nonexistent creases in her dress pants. “Thank you so much, Nelson. It means so much that I can count on you.”

His countenance is one of muted obedience.

“Would you like to get started immediately?” Nelson asks, turning his attention directly to me.

“Ah, well.” I make a show of checking my Patek Philippe watch. A man like Nelson Peltz will recognize the brand. “I need lunch first.”

I don’t want a position with too much responsibility, as there are other things I need to do. And under no certain terms do I plan on being trapped in this tower two to three years from now. Of course, I don’t have two to three years. I have ninety days.

“Very well, then.” Nelson says. “When you return from lunch, my assistant will get you situated.”

He reaches for the handset of the phone, dismissing us. “Did you need anything else?”

“Not at all,” my mother says. “Thank you, Nelson.”

He turns his attention to the phone on his desk, pressing at buttons before we’ve exited the office. My mother has lost some of her heralded power. In my youth, you would have thought she was the queen the way the staff held themselves in her presence. But of course, she’s no longer a Lumina employee. Not technically.

I open the door for my mother and pause as I take in the young woman sitting behind the now occupied assistant’s desk.

Dark hair, pulled back into a low bun, full lips and cheeks, and tortoiseshell-rimmed glasses. Thick, long lashes that adorn dark eyes. Her demure black turtleneck dress hugs all of her curves with unstated professional elegance.

She’s the woman from the pub. The woman that’s been flitting through my mind all weekend. The reason I returned to that pub by myself once on Saturday and twice on Sunday.

Thank god I didn’t introduce myself with any of my last names. Thank all the gods she declined my advances.

A sharp thwap on the back of my head reverberates from my skull down my neck.

“Ow,” I say, scowling at my mother. “Rings,” I remind her. How did she even reach my head?

“Off limits,” Mum hisses, and pushes me down the hall.

Chapter4

Lucia

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